


All the World Watches

by deluxemycroft



Series: Ouroboros [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bifrost, Duty, Gen, Permanent Injury, Short One Shot, heimdall the all-seer, mention of frigga and clint and steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 21:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deluxemycroft/pseuds/deluxemycroft
Summary: Thor falls.Heimdall finds him.





	All the World Watches

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place in the hand-wavy area after on&on and before twtwtm. very short, probably ooc, just a bit of plot that needs to be hashed out/groundwork that needs to be set.

Heimdall watched the clash between brothers from the Observatory. He had watched them grow together through the centuries, watched as Thor pushed Loki to the ground again and again, watched as Loki learned not to fight back, watched as his knees bruised and ached and he continued to suffer. He saw the bonds between them grow and strengthen and deepen, watched as Loki tried to leave and Thor dragged him back, over and over, ad infinitum. 

He watched as Thor and Frigga disappeared from his sight, watched as something _changed_. He watched as Thor _wanted_. He watched as Loki did everything he could manage to escape and Thor always found him. He watched as Loki was pushed beyond his limit, as he went to his knees before Thor and all of Asgard and bound their souls eternally. He watched as Loki looked out over his future and decided being bound was better than being killed again.

He watched as Loki’s seidr travelled to Midgard and connected with a man of no particular note. He watched as Loki fell in love, as he found himself as a person without Thor looming over him. He watched as Loki changed his own future and the future of both Midgard and Asgard. Heimdall watched as Thor spread rumors around Asgard, as Thor turned Asgard against his brother, as Thor worked to change whatever spell he had enacted to bring them here, to change whatever he had wrought. He brought the Norn Stones forth and they were _strange_ , they were not of this world. 

He watched as Thor went to Midgard and spoke with the humans there, watched him trade valuables for valuables, watched as he plotted with the humans for Loki’s return to him. He watched as Thor went to the stars, to the galaxies beyond Heimdall’s vision, and made a pact with a monster.

Something had changed. He could only pinpoint a general time, nothing specific enough to find a reason. But something was different. He could feel strange, ancient seidr all over Thor, but it was not his place to say anything. 

Heimdall watched.

He saw.

All he reported to Thor were threats against Asgard and the Nine Realms. It was his duty. He kept to his duty with honor, and he stayed his place.

He kept his golden eyes focused out on the great beyond, the vast expanse of stars beyond Asgard’s end. He watched the billions of lives upon the Nine Realms, watched as they began and ended and multiplied and fought and loved and killed. He watched regimes rise and fall, watched as the constituents of each Realm lived their lives. Heimdall knew all of them.

But he knew Thor and Loki best.

He watched as the Kings fell.

He watched as Loki managed as few had done before and broke bonds long thought unbreakable. He watched as Loki, once again, managed the impossible. He watched as Loki rose up and no longer lived on his knees.

Loki had fallen from the Bifrost before. Heimdall had never seen it, and it had not happened in this reality, but he had fallen before. Loki had experienced _something_ beyond name or measure, something too horrible to name. Thor had changed something, but he could not find it. Whatever power that was masking Thor’s machinations was far more powerful than even Heimdall’s sight.

Thor fell.

Heimdall found him.

He watched as Thor clawed his way up from the abyss, watched as he staggered to his feet and roared out his pain and agony and rage.

Heimdall opened the Bifrost and brought the King home.

Thor landed in the Observatory, panting and wild. He was missing his left arm, a bloody stump from the shoulder. His mismatched eyes were flickering with fire and lightning shot up his skin.

“Did you see where he went?” Thor asked, eyes on the place where the bridge had broken. Already Asgard’s magic was working to repair it, fixing what Loki had broken. Heimdall flooded it with his own seidr to hasten Thor’s departure.

Heimdall blinked slowly and turned his gaze to Midgard, to Steve Rogers and Loki curled up on the couch together, to the previously thought unremarkable archer lying awake in the next room, to Loki finally feeling _free_ of Thor’s chains. “No,” he lied, keeping his voice strong and sure. “He has hidden himself from me.”

Thor nodded and Heimdall turned to watch him, turned his gaze away from the stars and the beings beyond them. His remained hand curled into a fist and the air crackled around him. “He thinks he can run,” Thor thundered, shaking with fury. “I will show him what it means to _run_. There will be no place he can hide, no Captain he can hide behind. I will _hunt him_.”

With that, Heimdall watched as the Mad King of Asgard collapsed. It took only minutes for healers to arrive and whisk him away, for them to begin plans on an uru arm, for them to do everything to fix the one who did not deserve any of it, for them to frantically begin to repair the broken bonds, to bring Thor back from the brink of death. 

Heimdall turned his gaze back to the Realms, back to Loki.

He watched.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
> please follow me:  
> tumblr: @deluxemycroft  
> twitter: @whenhedied
> 
> please leave kudos and comments!


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